EarthSpirit

In our parish, we were going to have the Forty Hours Devotion, but that just seemed so, well, DONE, you know? And "forty," well, so limiting. Then we discovered the Earthspirit conference and we're sure this will be a MUCH more memorable occasion for us to invite Father Mankowski for his first preaching engagement here...

"Weeping, Miriam came to an immense waterfall cascading down into a beautiful mountain lake. She looked into that waterfall, with its 'absolute, unconditional giving of itself,' giving, even though it would eventually flow down 'into the industrialized farms, with nitrates running off, hedgerows being taken away, industrial tractors coming in, and trout streams with cautionary signs not to eat the fish.'

She found herself, through opening up to the pain, 'sounding,' in what she would later come to understand was 'keening.' Keening, a groaning sound that carried the sorrow, mourning, and grief, was something women would do, Miriam explained, at the death of the members of families and communities. She realized, 'that it is at this level that goddess, feminist wisdom must come forth. The energy must come forth from the deep grief of saying, no, we cannot do this!' Then she began to imagine what would happen if the women of Ireland, and the farmers with their deep, feminine, intuitive knowing, began to put on black shrouds, and showed up when the earth movers came in or incinerators were being built which would devastate the lakes."

Yes. I think we'll videotape this. Fr Fessio can market it as an Ignatius Videotape. We may see Fr Mankowski's EarthSpirit Rising on EWTN yet.

An appeal from our founder, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus:

Dear reader: If you found the information on this page helpful in your pursuit of a better Catholic life, please support our work with a donation. Your donation will help us reach seven million Truth-seeking readers worldwide this year. Thank you!

All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!